


The Last King

by havenborn (sinistra_blache)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Gen, Introspection, Kinkmeme, Main story spoilers, Prompt Fill, Regis cares a lot okay, Regis feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 06:33:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12906195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinistra_blache/pseuds/havenborn
Summary: Family means only one thing to the gods.





	The Last King

**Author's Note:**

> Last warning about endgame spoilers. 
> 
>  
> 
> The [prompt](https://ffxv-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/4113.html?thread=7311889#cmt7311889) given was:  
> Break my heart anons, what was Regis thinking when he murdered his own son?

Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum was raised like a regular child, or as close as Regis could manage it. He was given freedom to make friends. He was sent to a public school. He broke rules and didn’t away with it just because he was the blood royal. He sulked. He went out to arcades. In all ways that were possible, his life was normal. 

It was by design. King Regis was no fool and he knew what was to be asked of his only son. It was the king’s firm belief that his son, prince or not, Chosen or not, deserved a chance at happiness while he had the time left to choose it. 

As a boy, Noctis thrived. Regis saw little of Noctis, the young man. He died before getting to know what kind of king his son would be, however short that time ruling was meant to be. 

#

King Regis is ripped from the beyond, called forth by the true wielder of the Power of Kings, to see a familiar face worn by age and loss sitting on his throne. Regis turns away from the slaughter he always knew was coming for his boy; strangled gasps and determined breaths that remind him of the small child with a stubborn look on his face during rehabilitation as he learned how to walk for the second time in his life. 

One by one their ancestors drive their weapons into his son’s heart. It’s supposed to be a divine rite, ordained by the gods themselves, and from it a world will be saved. Regis thinks of how cruel the gods must be, not only to take his son from the world like this, but to allow a dead man to cry for him. Regis cried so many tears for his son in life, but in death he wasn’t quite finished. 

Family meant only one thing to the gods and that was that the only way to ensure a strong blooded king to be Chosen. They didn’t care about the bonds that might be forged between father and son. They didn’t care about the sadness felt on either side. They didn’t care about the tears, hugs, fights, and forgiveness shared between them. To the gods, the only purpose of their family was to produce a means to an end. Their only concern was to be clear about the line of Lucis Caelum to the Crystal, to Lucis, to the world. 

Regis was raised to respect his duty as king and learned to respect his duty as the Father of the Chosen. He did what he could to make sure Noctis respected his own calling, his own fate, and could face it in the end. He raised Noctis to walk tall. 

He is proud when Noctis lifts the sword. He is proud, though a broken whisper of a man, to hear pleading words speaking of trust, as Noctis allows this to happen. Noctis’ head is bowed in pain when Regis’ turn to murder the King of Light comes. It’s easier, for that moment while Noctis doesn’t meet his eyes, for Regis to lift his sword against his heir. Yet he does lift his head. He sees his father. Regis sees his son. For a breath, they are reunited.

His pride is comparable only to how tangible his own pain is as his sword impales his son, his boy, on the throne that claimed all of their family over the years. 

One last king to die on the throne in service to Lucis. The ghost of King Regis, the Father, disappeared with a prayer on his lips to gods that rarely listened:

Please let them meet in the beyond. There was so much left to say.


End file.
